I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

The Supreme Council of Kyoto's Fourth Defense Line.

The atmosphere in the hall was even heavier than at the front lines.

On the holographic sand table, all the defensive fortifications of the fourth line of defense were marked in a striking red.

The wind wall at the northern pass could no longer maintain its strength, the rune towers along the southeast coast had exhausted all their energy, less than 20% of the air battleship fleet remained, and the mech forces were almost completely wiped out.

Kyoto, this ancient capital with a history of over a thousand years, is now indefensible.

The chief of staff of the Great Xia Expeditionary Force was the first to speak.

"We have won today's battle."

"But all defenses have reached their limit."

"The next time the Kuroshio attacks, the pass won't be able to withstand the first assault."

"I propose that the fifth line of defense be activated immediately."

"Abandon all the land of the Sakura Country, deploy a deep defense in the entire East China Sea, and use the advantage of naval mobility to drag the Kuroshio into a war of attrition."

The commander of the remnant Russian Federation forces immediately stood up.

"agree."

"Although the fleet suffered heavy losses, the remnants of the Black Sea Fleet and the Pacific Fleet can cover the entire sea area with unmanned underwater vehicles and long-range fire networks."

"By diverting the Kuroshio Current to the surface, we can hold out for at least a few more months."

The Southeast Asian coalition representative's lips moved, but in the end he only said one sentence.

"agree."

"We have no objection."

Everyone looked at Chiyomiya Hanyu.

She sat at the end of the long table, a pheasant sword lying across her lap, her plain white kimono still stained with the black blood splattered from the pass.

She is the supreme commander of the Eastern War Zone, the chief priestess of the Sakura Kingdom, and the heir to the Chiyomiya family, who have protected this land for hundreds of years.

Giving up Kyoto means giving up the Chiyomiya family's ancestral home, the sacred spring, the sealing array, and everything that the priestesses have protected for generations.

No one can give this order in her place.

After a moment, she nodded slightly.

Her back was still very straight, and her tone remained as composed as ever.

But Gu Yan noticed that her fingers were gripping the hilt of the pheasant knife very tightly.

Tokyo Skytree at night.

This radio tower, once Tokyo's most dazzling landmark, is now unattended.

The elevator had long been out of service, so Gu Yan climbed the maintenance stairs all the way to the observation deck at the top.

The glass curtain wall was shattered in several places by the shockwave from a previous air raid, and the night wind, carrying the salty smell of the sea, poured in through the gaps.

He leaned against the railing, looking down at the city that was about to be abandoned.

The power supply was not completely cut off, and there were scattered lights flickering in the streets. I wondered which convenience store had forgotten to turn off its lights, and which shrine's stone lanterns were still lit with candles.

He thought about it a lot.

Three years ago at Windsor Manor, that night, he leaned against the fireplace watching the fire go out, and felt that although his life was short, it had not been in vain.

He didn't die; he came back to life.

After coming back to life, he saw the Titan-class monster that even nuclear bombs couldn't kill, he saw the Russian Federation's twelfth-ranked Valkyrie blown into an ice sculpture, he saw Lin Jinyu hugging him and crying, and he saw Chiyomiya Yusuke standing in front of him and saying that anyone who dares to touch him must get past him first.

But what can he change by living?

Those fallen soldiers will never return, and those cities swallowed by the Black Tide will never be rebuilt.

He stood there, as if standing between two separate lives.

One story belongs to Gu Yan, the jewel of the empire who has passed away peacefully, and the other belongs to a stranger who opens his eyes again in the deep forests of the Sakura Kingdom.

Just then, a pair of arms gently wrapped around his waist from behind.

The force was very light, as if afraid he would break.

A warm body pressed against my back, and through the thin kimono I could feel a heartbeat, steady and firm.

A very faint scent of cypress wafted from behind.

It tastes the same as the spiritual spring water, and the same as the refreshing scent that always lingered around her whenever she was near him.

He subconsciously called out her name in his mind.

"Why are you here?"

"Mr. Gu is here too."

Her voice came from behind him, muffled.

"This is my home, I know it better than you do."

"When I was little, whenever my spiritual energy went out of control and I couldn't sleep because of the pain, I would climb up here by myself to look at the moon."

"The moon in Tokyo is different from the moon in Kyoto; it's higher, farther away, and colder here."

"But the moon doesn't seem so cold tonight."

She pressed her face against his back and remained silent for a long time.

The wind blew in through the broken glass curtain wall, blowing her long, dark hair that fell over her shoulders.

Her voice was very soft.

"This is the first time I'm leaving my hometown."

"When my mother passed away, she told me to guard the sealing array, to guard Kyoto, and to guard the land of cherry blossoms."

"But the fourth line of defense collapsed, all the fortifications were destroyed, and Kyoto could not be defended."

"We must retreat to the sea and leave every inch of the land of cherry blossoms to the Kuroshio Current."

Gu Yan placed her hand on the back of the hand that was wrapped around her waist.

He could feel her fingertips trembling slightly.

She didn't cry; she never cried in front of others, but her fingers were trembling.

"You have defended Kyoto."

"The defensive line at the pass should have collapsed in the first wave of attack, but you single-handedly held off all the steel colossi on the flank, as well as the Titans. You froze it outside the pass."

"The surviving soldiers will remember, and so will the civilians who evacuated to the fifth line by boat."

"It was your pheasant sword that cleaved a path to survival for them."

He turned to face her.

The moonlight shone on her face, making her features appear exceptionally soft and clear.

She looked up at him, her deep brown eyes reflecting the sparse stars and moon above the Tokyo Tower.

"And you're not alone."

"You still have Jinyu, Aunt Pei... and me."

"No matter where your hometown is, home is wherever there are people."

She looked at him quietly, and after a very long time, a very faint smile appeared on her lips.

That smile appeared exceptionally clear in the moonlight, without bitterness or reluctance, only a profound sense of relief.

"Mr. Gu, you're right."

"With you around, it doesn't seem so sad."

"Of course, it would be even better if you had fewer female confidantes."

Gu Yan was initially feeling somewhat sentimental.

He stood on the observation deck at the top of Tokyo Tower, with the ancient capital about to be abandoned below and the burning coastline in the distance. Behind him was the line from Hanyu Chiyomiya: "This is my home, I know it better than you do."

The night wind blew in through the broken glass curtain wall, ruffling a few stray hairs on his forehead.

He was about to say something in response to her heartfelt confession about leaving her hometown for the first time.

Then he heard the last sentence.

"Of course, it would be even better if you had fewer female confidantes."

He broke the somber atmosphere with a violent cough.

It wasn't an act; I genuinely choked on the air that was still stuck in my throat.

He bent down and coughed several times while holding onto the railing, tears welling up in his eyes.

The atmosphere just now was so serious, so affectionate, so perfect for making a promise like "I will always be with you".

Then, in the calm and collected tone of a chief priestess, she delivered a precise blow.